Reporters Without Borders is shocked to learn that the Gaza Strip’s Hamas-led government has banned Palestinian media and journalists from cooperating with the Israeli media because of the latter’s “hostility.”

“Offenders will be prosecuted,” the Hamas government said in a 25 December press release announcing the prohibition.

“This is the first time the Palestinian authorities have issued such a ban, which poses a serious threat to freedom of information,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It will also create problems for the not insignificant number of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip who work for Israeli TV stations and newspapers. We urge the Hamas government to rescind this order.”

Terrorists wanting to control information is shocking?
Would these people be any more shocked to know that Palestinian journalists themselves have issued such bans?

Any Palestinian journalists who meet with Israeli colleagues will be expelled from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in the West Bank, the group warned on Thursday.

The warning followed a meeting that took place last week between Israeli and Palestinian journalists on the occasion of World Free Press Day.

Similar meetings have also taken place over the past few months in France, Norway and Germany, prompting the Fatah-dominated journalists syndicate to issue the warning.

“We are opposed to such meetings because they are designed to achieve normalization with Israel,” said a senior member of the journalists syndicate in Ramallah. “Any member who meets with Israeli journalists will be fired.”

Last week, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in Ramallah boycotted a ceremony organized by the US Consulate on the occasion of World Free Press Day.

The syndicate accused the US of being biased in favor of Israel and threatened to expose the identity of any Palestinian journalist who accepts the invitation. (hat tip: Elder of Ziyon)

Nothing says "freedom of the press" quite like limiting that freedom on World Free Press Day.

The naivete of Reporters Without Borders is nothing less than astonishing -- which one might think is obvious when one sees that the Palestinian version of events is consistently accepted and used as the basis of news reports.

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